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Nice review. I was at the same show and enjoyed it very much. 1919 is far from my favorite record, but it was nice hearing it live. And I really enjoyed the second half and "Captain Hook" was nearly transcendent. I'd seen Cale when he was touring "Sabotage Live" and count that among my favorite shows. I usually hate it when rock people use orchestras but I thought it worked really well at that show. The arrangements were integral, not just a pretension as is usually the case. Took my 13 year-year-old son since he's a big fan of Cale's work in "Songs for Drella". It was his first concert, which reminded me of my first concert, which was when I was thirteen, which was Jethro Tull, where drug dealers openly hawked weed and pills and the stadium was a filled with a giant marijuana cloud. How things have changed, eh. BAM was a bunch of fifty and sixty year olds politely listening to a seventy year old. Still, he enjoyed the show. Turned out his Cello teacher was in the band. Small world, Brooklyn.

If you're interested, here's a great Cale performance from a strange location.

I was at the Friday show (as well as Wednesday's Nico tribute) too, and thought it was a blast. "Venus in Furs," which I've long thought was a much better fit with Cale's ominious baritone than Reed's nasal drone, was a phenomenal way to wrap things up, although I couldn't help thinking back to seeing Cale at St. Anne's Warehouse about seven years ago when he *opened* with "Venus," then declined to play another Velvets tune for the entire night, which I thought was an enjoyably brazen move. I only wish he'd played "(I Keep a) Close Watch."

Lucky you! I was born about 3 years too late, my first concerts were in 1975 and I didn't start going to shows regularly until 1978 so I missed Tull on the APP and TAAB tours; ELP on the "Brain Salad Surgery" tour; Yes doing "Tales from Topographic Oceans"; Genesis doing "The Lamb", Pink Floyd doing "Dark Side" with the old stuff. The one consolation: seeing Yes on the "Relayer" tour at the Hollywood Bowl.

Lester Bangs, yikes. I can't decide who's a worse critic from that era, him or Dave Marsh.

Thanks for the Tull link, a pity that a full APP show wasn't professionally filmed (see also: a "Brain Salad Surgery" show and "The Lamb").

It was his first concert, which reminded me of my first concert, which was when I was thirteen, which was Jethro Tull, where drug dealers openly hawked weed and pills and the stadium was a filled with a giant marijuana cloud. How things have changed, eh.

"my first concert, which was when I was thirteen, which was Jethro Tull"

"Hopefully it was the "A Passion Play" tour."

(sniff) wow...

My most treasured hunk of vinyl is a "Passion Play" live bootleg, I have yet to find it on cd. My first Tull show was at 'King's Dominion' near Richmond for the 'Crest of the Knave' tour. Yet another different era...